ARBURG on Uniplast: Serious about sustainability

ArburgGREENworld covers all aspects of ARBURG‘s sustainability management. How do you stay on the ball with this issue?

B. Stern: By taking an integrated approach! ARBURG takes its lead from the WIN Charter of Baden-Württemberg and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. We pursue a consistently sustainable strategy with our bundled competencies. Many topics play a role here – from circular economy and energy and resource efficiency to carbon footprint, digitalisation and strategic partnerships.

Which projects is ARBURG particularly active in at the moment?

B. Stern: A whole lot (laughs). For example, we are working on innovative technologies for the circular economy to complete the plastic product cycle. And in September 2020, “HolyGrail2.0” progressed to the next round. Together with over 85 companies along the entire value chain, we are advancing the sorting of plastic packaging by means of digital watermarks. Another project dealing with the labelling and recycling of high-quality recyclates is R-Cycle, initiated by Reifenhäuser.

Can injection moulding machines process recycled materials just as well and as reliably as new plastic materials?

B. Stern: With recyclates, fluctuating material qualities are a major challenge. To cope with this and optimise the injection moulding processes, we are collaborating with partners such as the Institute for Plastics and Closed-Loop Technology (IKK) at Leibniz University in Hanover, which has two ALLROUNDERs in use for tests.

Bertram Stern, Manager Packaging and Circular Economy, is proud of the “HolyGrail2.0” project, which involves sorting plastic packaging by type using digital watermarks (graphic)

What about the sustainability of the ALLROUNDERs themselves?

B. Stern: This is a very complex issue that we are also working on with the IKK. For example, one of the final papers being researched there deals with the carbon footprint of our injection moulding machines. The aim is to find a method that can be used to evaluate and optimise the production of ALLROUNDERs in terms of sustainability.

Can you sum up all of these activities in one sentence?

B. Stern: ARBURG is doing everything in its power to sustainably reduce its carbon footprint in plastics processing.

ARBURG, as a long-term partner and main sponsor, professionally covers the issue of technology at the Uniplast conference, held in Jihlava on 15-16. September 2021. Suppliers of materials and machinery to the plastics industry will also speak on the topic of circular economics.